Truma combi heater

[Guest john steggles]

Has anybody first hand experience of fitting an external water heating collar.(240 volt)) Are they very effective and what time does it take to heat up? Is it a DIY job?

[Guest Derek Uzzell]

Although these heating-collars only consume a small amount of 230V power, they are surprisingly effective. It's difficult to tell you how long it takes to heat the water as it depends on the water's initial temperature. If the water is cold to begin with it will naturally take longer to reach maximum temperature than if it is warmer. Essentially, the heating-collar applies 450W of energy to 12 litres of water and (eventually) will bring it up to about 60C. The process is nowhere near as speedy as applying 2kW of gas heat, but you wouldn't really expect it to be. On the rare occasions we used a 230V hook-up, I used to switch on the collar immediately and leave it on until we disconnected from the mains. Heating collars can only be retro-fitting to Trumatic C-series 2 heaters (C3402 or C6002). The task is pretty simple once the heater has been removed from the vehicle. Not sure if you could do it with the heater in situ though: most motorcaravan manufacturers hide these heaters inaccessibly in cupboards/wardrobes or under beds. Incidentally, I'm in the process of buying a Hobby T-600 that will come with a gas-only under-bed C6002 and I'm thinking about adding a heating-collar myself. As far as I can recall (having looked at Brownhills' demo model) I thought there was a sporting chance of adding a collar without too much dismantling, but your Hobby's differences (double-floor, etc.) might make matters better or worse.

[Guest Peter Goddard]

Very interesting, we too have a C6002 and we are considering the same up grade. Let us know how you get on, I would not like to take out the boiler but if we can fit the collar in situ OK. Our boiler is underbed but is easy enough to access.